KIAH COLLIER: Petroleum industry confronts water use

SAN ANGELO, Texas - The same week oil and gas industry representatives convened in Midland to discuss the best ways to lessen their dependence on freshwater aquifers in the Permian Basin, NASA told The Associated Press that satellites have found the state's aquifers to be at "lows rarely seen since 1948."

This provided confirmation of fears that it is not just surface water supplies that have taken a serious beating during the most intense drought in recorded state history.

Earlier last week, climate experts said at a conference in Fort Worth that the dry spell will almost certainly persist through the early part of next summer — and possibly beyond, as reported by the Texas Tribune.

Long story short, it doesn't matter if water use for oil and gas mining makes up only 2 percent of overall statewide water use. The terrifying fact remains that the state's overall water supply is dwindling, and if you are consuming any amount that could be considered substantial in localized areas, you are going to be placed under a microscope.

The petroleum industry knows that fate is coming and wants to do something about it before the government tells it to.

"We are going to be needing more and more water," said Steve Monroe, a water management and treatment expert who works for Houston-based oil field services company Baker Hughes, noting that it takes seven to nine barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil in the U.S.

In West Texas, where surface water supplies were scarce before the drought, companies are getting almost 100 percent of their water from the region's aquifers because it is the closest, cheapest and easiest source to obtain.

In Crockett County and elsewhere in West Texas, water use for oil and gas mining — in particular, the controversial, water-intensive technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" — already makes up as much as half of the county's total water use.

And drilling and production is going nowhere but up for the foreseeable future.

Monroe said there is no single "silver bullet" solution for the most cost-effective, least risky water source, but he warned that companies are going to have to change how they use water.

"We know our water supplies are dwindling, infrastructure is poor in many areas, the costs are going to go up, they're not going to go down, and the public perception cannot be understated," Monroe said, noting the vehement opposition to fracking in northern states where it has been linked to groundwater contamination. "The perception up there is hydraulic fracturing is evil; it's bad."

Peter Galusky, an environmental scientist and oil and gas environmental consultant who complained of the industry's unwillingness to share water use information, warned that "if you don't do it, someone is going to do it for you and to you."

Galusky recommended the creation of a task force similar to one he served on in the Barnett Shale in North Texas that examined how much water was being used as well as available sources and established best practices for use.

The main take-away from Thursday's symposium in Midland: Permian Basin operators (and many elsewhere) are still getting almost all their water for drilling and fracking from freshwater aquifers. But some of them are thinking about having to do something different, either recycling the small amount of so-called "produced" water that comes back up out of the ground or using the brackish, salty water deeper underground (many industry representatives and researchers noted that there is a lack of information about where the best sources of brackish water are).

"It can definitely be done," said Mark Engle, a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who spoke at the symposium, of using brackish water for drilling and fracking.

The main barrier to these alternatives is the added expense they pose.

Although using brackish or recycled water may reduce trucking costs, storing the produced water, which is laced with hazardous chemicals, is tricky because a permit must be obtained.

Bummer.

A heavy mood hung over the symposium.

The only people without furrowed brows or blank expressions of bewilderment were water treatment companies who made inspiring sales pitches.

Engle and Galusky also offered a positive spin, saying the discussion was one of the first of its kind and a chance for the industry to lead the way.

"Even on an international level it's recognized that Permian Basin (operators) are going to be at the forefront of defining how water is used for hydraulic fracturing, probably throughout the world," Engle said. "So I think these types of discussions are extremely important not only for Texas but frankly probably for the rest of the world. Anything we're doing here is kind of being looked at as an example for worst-case scenario or how others can (attack the problem) in the future."

Hoxie Smith, director of the Petroleum Professional Development Center at Midland College and the main organizer of the symposium, said the issue is pressing in West Texas.

The all-day affair came about, he said, after operators in the area contacted him about their water-related challenges and expressed a desire to begin a conversation among the industry.

"There's a real scarcity of potable drinking quality water around, and also at the same time we've got record rig activity in the Permian Basin," Smith said, noting that the boom has been spurred mostly by fracking, a well-completion technique that, in the Permian Basin, requires an average of 2 million gallons of water per well.

"We have operators that are having to get water to these wells to complete them, but they either have to drill on landowners' land and use groundwater or they have to truck it in, which is a big expense, but either way they're using a resource that's pretty scarce right now."

Kiah Collier covers state and local government — and the drought — for the Standard-Times. Contact her at kcollier@gosanangelo.com or 325-659-8237.